Rainy days and earth shakes

YES, they always get me down. At least, that had been during all of my active tennis-playing years so many decades ago. The rains then had always been a constant enemy. Never mind the coaching that your real opponent was yourself rather than the person (or persons) at the other side of the net. Never mind the sentiment that rain was good for the plants and better for the farmers. My thinking then was tunnel-visioned and I had a pig-headed view of the world and just like the game’s scoring, love had been nothing to me during those times.

I reckon the world teaches you a lesson. When much older, my work had for a time, occasionally involved going outdoors. Being such, communing with nature had turned out to be one of my mostawaited simple pleasures. I am sure many who fosters a deep love for the outdoors can relate to the feeling of watching the rain fall silently on a sleeping forest below while viewing it from a small tent atop a mountain. Many a time, such simple occurrences offer us a most humbling realization: we are only small of all creation.

“One of the things that make Davao a most livable city is the rich diversity of our nature and our culture. Our biodiversity and our multiculturalism. Promoting and preserving that is an important policy of our city government. We planned it that way because we believe that diversity is what makes us creative and resilient.

“That is the reason why I am proposing a city ordinance creating the dedicated to protect and promote Davao cultural heritage and the arts. It will have a Cultural Heritage Section; an Arts Section; and a Cultural Communities and Traditional Arts Section. the arts, the proposed ordinance will also establish the that will be used to support local culture and arts programs, projects, and activities.

“I would like to invite all of you here today to join me in championing the passage of this important piece of local legislation. Our public hearings on this proposed ordinance will start next week and I look

Reporter: RHODA GRACE B. SARON

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IAN RAY GARCIA

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“Most local governments only have local culture and arts councils that get replaced and are vulnerable to local politics. Also, culture and arts matters if something as vital as culture only exists to serve tourists.

“Davao City would like to change all that. We our money where our mouth is to show how culture and arts are critical to the city’s sustainable development. How it is an important element in our survival.

“We are making history today with this “Pakiglambigit” and I hope this is the beginning of a long and meaningful collaboration for cultural education and cultural heritage promotion not just for Davao and Mindanao, but for the entire nation.”

The rains in the “patag” (as people in the mountains refer to the city), fall fairly on everyone. While it is many things to them; though it could be erratic destroying crops, the rains are never regarded as a curse. Being a part of nature, they generally accept it as it is (and while the additive “warts and all” may seem out of place, as long as one gets the idea, I’m using it.).

On the other hand, I’ve heard it called by manylands. In one area where we used to live in, for example, I had witnessed a neighbor actually shaking place had always been more than knee-deep in water whenever it did.

On the subject of earthquakes, what can one do? We all have our share of the shakes. Cities, particularly those situated near coastal areas, same with country sides and mountain retreats have had their own records of tragedies in the past. All that we can do is to try to limit their effects on us by adhering to already-formulated rules.

Already, many, especially those in social media, have come forward with methods at preventing these and other natural disasters through prayers and new beliefs. Not to say that this is wrong, at least try to be practical and rational. It’s way beyond ‘different strokes for different folks’, is all.

Finally, it’s quite amusing that whenever a tremor is felt, someone on social media instantly posts a your tribe increase.

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